German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to significantly deepen bilateral defense cooperation and forge a united, tougher front against Chinese economic practices during a joint cabinet summit on Friday. Meeting at Augustusburg Castle to revitalize the Franco-German alliance, the two leaders moved to get past recent domestic friction following the collapse of their joint fighter jet project earlier this year. While the aircraft component of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) failed due to deep industrial disagreements between manufacturing partners, Merz and Macron announced that the two nations will continue to advance joint development on military cloud technologies, long-range weapons, and integrated air defense systems. Furthermore, the leaders unveiled a historic expansion in security ties by mapping out a new shared path in nuclear deterrence, which will see German conventional forces participate in a French military nuclear exercise for the first time.
On economic policy, Macron declared that Paris and Berlin have never been so closely aligned on the structural challenges posed by Beijing, noting that the European Union faces a staggering one-billion-euro daily trade deficit with China that threatens thousands of local jobs. Both leaders sharply criticized China’s industrial overcapacity and massive state subsidies, which they noted are roughly eight times higher than Western standards and unfairly penalize European industries. To protect domestic markets and counter what they described as an undervalued currency, France and Germany have tasked their finance and foreign ministers with producing a comprehensive economic roadmap by September to pressure the European Commission into deploying faster market investigations and trade defense instruments.
